Are you playing the same deck that you did at the Pro Tour? Why, or why not?

Picking a deck for the Pro Tour can be a make-or-break proposition. A deck poorly positioned demands perfection while playing, and a bringing the best deck in the room can give you the leeway to take a loss somewhere along the way. It’s a game of metagame, and someone always loses.

But past the Pro Tour, when secrets are laid bare, the choice of deck changes. Or does it? At Grand Prix San Diego we checked in with some of the best to see why they doubled down or opted out of their Vancouver votes.

Hall of Fame player William Jensen jumped from his Pro Tour ship for San Diego.

William Jensen: “No. I’m playing Green-White. It seemed well-positioned for this weekend. Brian Kibler did really well with it at the Pro Tour.”

Tom Martell had spend many rounds under the lights of the feature match stage throughout the weekend. He, too, bailed from before.

Tom Martell: “No. I’m on the Green-White deck that I should have played at the Pro Tour. I think it’s well position in the metagame. It has a surprising amount of play in it and lets you outplay people, which is rare for a creature deck with eight non-creature spells.”

Hall of Fame player Ben Stark knew Green-White would be up this weekend, and planned accordingly.

Ben Stark: “No. I’m playing Esper Dragons. I think it’s very good against the Green-White creature decks. I wasn’t expecting the Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact deck to get deep in the tournament. It’s really bad for Esper Dragons, which is good against the decks I’m trying to beat that.”

Brian Kibler, the Hall of Fame player that calls San Diego home, was pleased with his metagame choice the weekend before.

Brian Kibler: “Yes! I think it’s great! I think it’s particularly good if the metagame looks like it did at the Pro Tour last week. Red Aggro and Blue-Red Ensoul Artifact are good matchups, and it has good sideboard plans against the other decks. It’s generally very powerful in the field.”

Hall of Fame player Patrick Chapin also stayed the course in Standard from last weekend to this.

Patrick Chapin: “Yes. A few cards are different but it’s mostly the same – the same thing as Matt Sperling. I think Abzan is the best and you can tune it to beat anything. In, particular I like it against Kibler’s Green-White deck: It’s the second biggest deck here and Abzan Control is one of that deck’s only weaknesses.”